


Solstice

by Siria



Category: Elementary (TV)
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, POV Character of Color, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 21:58:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2827499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siria/pseuds/Siria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joan and Ms Hudson on the longest night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Solstice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [copracat (Vera)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vera/gifts).



> Written to a prompt by Copracat.

Joan replaced her lock pick in her wallet and closed the door behind her. She'd come over intending to borrow Sherlock's copy of the Álvarez file, bring it back to her place and read it over a late dinner of leftovers, but the smell wafting out of the kitchen caught her attention. That would normally be her cue to leave even quicker than she'd intended—they'd had to bring in professional crime-scene cleaners after Sherlock's last fridge-based experiment had eaten its way through the floor of the appliance. This smell made her shrug out of her coat and hang it on the coat rack before heading for the kitchen. 

"Ms Hudson?" Joan asked, bemused. "It's not your day to be here."

"Hello, Joan dear," Ms Hudson said. "What wonderful timing! The soup will be a while longer, but this is almost done. Maybe a _little_ more cardamom first, though." She was standing by the stove, wearing the most tasteful cashmere Christmas sweater that Joan had ever seen. There were three different pots simmering away, all of which Ms Hudson must have brought with her—Joan was pretty sure that Sherlock had bought all his kitchen furnishings in one indiscriminate raid of Goodwill, and while it wasn't impossible, Joan didn't think the nearest Goodwill kept a lot of Le Creuset cookware in stock. Dozens of lit candles lined the window sill and clustered on the kitchen table. 

"Mulled wine?" Joan leaned in over the pot Ms Hudson was stirring and inhaled deeply. "Oh my god, it smells fantastic."

"It's an old family recipe," Ms Hudson said in a confiding tone of voice. "My grandmother taught me how to make it years ago. She liked to throw in a dash or three of brandy—she said it made it extra-warming when you were in the middle of a Nebraska winter. Of course, Grandma liked to add a dash of Irish to pretty much everything she ever made, bless her. But this is alcohol-free, and with a bit of a medieval twist to the recipe. Did you know that in the Middle Ages they thought that mulled wine helped with the digestive process? Of course, they called it hippocras back then, so that's hardly surprising when you think about it, really."

Joan had long since learned that it mostly paid to absorb, not to encourage, Ms Hudson when she went off on a historical tangent. Otherwise it could be like talking to a human version of Wikipedia's 'random page' link. "I thought Sherlock put his foot down about having anything to do with Christmas in the house," Joan said, as Ms Hudson ladled them out a generous mug each. 

"He did," Ms Hudson said, handing one mug over to Joan and taking a sip of her own. She let out a pleased-sounding hum. "He declared a pox on tinsel, and yelled 'humbug' out the window at the neighbours when he saw them bringing in a Christmas tree. But this is the solstice, which is really a very different thing. Sherlock didn't really like being hoist by his own petard on a technicality, which is why he's on the roof with Kitty right now, practising his handstands—"

Nothing good could come of asking. 

"—but I'm sure he'll reconsider. There's carrot and ginger soup to come, after all, and it's such good comfort food, if I do say so myself."

"I forgot tonight was the solstice," Joan said. She took a first, appreciative sip of her own drink. It was rich, warming her up from the inside out and helping to dispel the last wisps of damp and cold that clung to her after her walk from the subway stop. "This case has had us running around in circles."

"I hear extortion cases can do that to a person," Ms Hudson said seriously, before clinking her mug against Joan's own. Her smile was bright. "But you should always spend the longest night with your family, you know. There's no better way to help roll back the dark."


End file.
